USA TODAY International Edition
Our View: A victory for democracy and decency
All presidential elections are historic in their own way, but 2020 is truly one for the books. The turnout was stupendous, the highest participation rate in more than a century. The result, a nail- biting victory for Joe Biden after days of vote counting, confounded pollsters who had projected a bigger Democratic wave.
Biden, who turns 78 on Nov. 20, becomes the oldest person elected president. His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, becomes the first woman and the first person of color to be elected vice president.
Biden’s win showed that the majority of voters — exhausted or enraged by the turmoil of Donald Trump’s first term — were looking for a change. For the first time in 28 years, they ousted an incumbent.
They replaced the first president who had no prior public- service experience with a politician who has nearly a half- century of it. They replaced a narcissistic, indecent person with one who is known for being unusually compassionate and caring. They replaced a divider with a uniter.
A decent president who respects the nation’s democratic ideals is exactly what is needed, with a nation split by Trump’s reign of chaos and in the throes of a worsening health emergency. “Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end — here and now,” Biden said Saturday night, striking an appropriate and healing tone.
As the election results showed, the nation remains deeply divided along cultural and political lines. The fact that Trump almost pulled off a stunning upset shows that his brashness continues to resonate with tens of millions of voters. It will not be easy for him, or them, to accept the loss.
And it will not be easy for Biden to govern. Depending on the results of two January runoff elections in Georgia, Republicans might retain a slim majority in the Senate. And even if Democrats reach 50 seats there, some Democrats representing red states would likely balk at progressive ideas vigorously opposed by Republicans.
Perhaps no other Democratic nominee besides Biden could have carried the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania, where he was born. And perhaps more than anyone the Democrats could have fielded, Biden can bring his humanity to play in restoring some of the things that have been lost in this country in nearly four years.
Part of Biden’s appeal is the things he won’t do: attack doctors and scientists in the midst of a deadly pandemic; attack the integrity of our democratic institutions; profit off the presidency while withholding his tax returns from the public; traffic in racist fearmongering; send unhinged tweets from the White House at all hours of the day and night.
But Biden perhaps can do more. There is a reason that attempts to smear him fell flat. The American people know him well, and he has built up a reservoir of goodwill. He can use that goodwill to the national advantage.
The first order of business is to get America out of the hole it is in from the pandemic, which claimed 1,529 lives on Election Day alone, according to The COVID Tracking Project. This means developing a coherent national strategy to contain the virus until a vaccine is ready, then building public confidence in a vaccination program. It also means another financial relief bill, if not in a lame- duck congressional session then early next year.
Another high priority is to restore America’s tattered global reputation by reversing Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization and by rejoining the Paris climate accord, from which the United States officially withdrew last week.
Beyond that, the details of a legislative strategy can be worked out over time. For now, in many ways the United States of America just needs a return to the normalcy that previous presidents of both parties exhibited.
President- elect Joe Biden’s victory represents the political equivalent of Alka- Seltzer, a product introduced 11 years before he was born. As the old commercial jingle put it: Oh, what a relief it is.